Fang Bai drowsily heard a rooster crow. Seeing that it was still dark outside, he went back to sleep.
After an unknown amount of time, the sky gradually brightened, and morning light spilled over the quiet village.
As soon as dawn broke, Fang Bai naturally opened his eyes, got up, and stretched.
He brushed his teeth and rinsed his mouth unhurriedly. The icy well water instantly left him feeling wide awake.
He opened the pressure cooker and found hot white rice porridge inside, perfect with pickles. Fang Bai felt pretty good about it. It was rare not to have to rush through breakfast.
The hot porridge went down his throat, warming him from the inside out.
Checking the time, he saw it was already past eight in the morning. His parents were no longer home. His father had most likely gone out to pick up odd jobs, while his mother had ridden her bike to take Younger Sister back to school. Saving a little on transportation costs was still something.
Fang Bai memorized English phrases for a while, then tied the luggage he had packed the night before onto his bicycle rack before riding away from home.
He was now making every second count in his studies. If he failed to get into his ideal Key University next year, he would have to repeat another year of school, and he definitely did not want that.
Therefore, before the college entrance exam, studying came first and making money came second.
After the college entrance exam, making money would come first.
Of course, he could not miss opportunities to make money either. He had to earn enough startup capital before the end of next year, or he would miss his chance to make a fortune.
Half an hour later, Fang Bai arrived at his rented house and carried his luggage up to the second floor.
Riding a bicycle was not ideal. The roads were poor, and even a slight wind would kick up clouds of yellow dust that coated him in grime.
He had been used to driving cars for so long in his previous life that being without one felt deeply uncomfortable.
He had not ridden a bicycle in a long time. It had felt fresh yesterday, but today it was pure suffering. The friction had left his tailbone aching.
Fang Bai dusted himself off, then went to the bank to queue up and withdraw money before returning to Hengli Company.
Fang Bai handed Wang Hengli three thousand yuan and signed the purchase contract.
"Manager Wang, I'll also have to trouble you to arrange for a forklift to deliver the equipment to my place. It's nearby. Your company's five-ton forklift will do." Fang Bai had already planned it out. The equipment had a net weight of 3.5 tons and had not been disassembled into parts. If it were taken apart, he would have trouble putting it back together himself.
He did not have a five-ton overhead crane in his rented house. If he transported it by truck, unloading it without a forklift would be a huge hassle. He would have to rent one temporarily, which would be another expense.
If he repaired the equipment without moving it away first, Wang Hengli and the workshop workers would definitely see how he repaired it. Fang Bai did not want them watching.
Once the equipment had been moved away, if he could not sell it for the price he wanted here, Fang Bai could still sell it to someone else.
Of course, moving the equipment was indeed a major hassle.
"That's no problem. I'll let the factory manager know. Aren't you planning to come work for us? Sales can be quite profitable." Wang Hengli still thought highly of flexible young people like Fang Bai.
"Thank you for the offer, Manager Wang, but I have other plans at the moment." Fang Bai had considered the path of earning commissions through sales. It might be difficult for others, but not for someone with a Golden Finger like him. It was only a matter of how much he could earn.
However, he had no interest in working for someone else.
Besides, small orders did not bring in much commission.
And huge orders would never fall into Fang Bai's hands, so this path was not suitable for him.
"Fine. You're welcome anytime once you've made up your mind."
"Manager Wang, have you settled on the new equipment yet?"
"Not yet. New equipment is hard to buy these days, and the wait is long. It's giving me a real headache."
The two chatted as they walked to the workshop office on the first floor. Wang Hengli spoke to the factory manager, Ma Jingsen, asking him to arrange transportation for the equipment, then left after giving his instructions.
More than ten minutes later, the five-ton forklift arrived beside the Drilling Machine. Fang Bai personally adjusted the fork spacing before allowing the forklift driver to lift the equipment. Once it was raised, he tied a hoisting rope around its upper section to prevent it from tipping over.
Under normal circumstances, forklift tines had a certain upward tilt. Experienced drivers even drove in reverse when going downhill. Fang Bai was worried that the forklift driver might lack experience. The route was not exactly short, and if the equipment toppled over midway, it would be damaged.
The people nearby thought Fang Bai was being unnecessarily cautious by tying it down, but he believed that what needed to be done still had to be done. The equipment was his. If it really broke, his three-thousand-yuan investment would go down the drain.
After checking the transport safety, Fang Bai spotted the drill bits beside the Drilling Machine, along with tools such as an Adjustable Wrench, bench vise, and Allen wrenches. He immediately set his sights on them, hoping to take them along as well.
Without tools, he would have to spend several dozen yuan to buy a set separately, or he would have no way to disassemble and reassemble the equipment.
"Manager Ma, there's also a set of drill bits and repair tools. They go with it, so please load them up for me."
Ma Jingsen's eyes widened. "You buy the equipment and get drill bits and tools too?"
"Why don't you ask Manager Wang? Some of those tools were included with this equipment to begin with. I'm not asking you to provide anything else."
Ma Jingsen hesitated for a moment, then nodded in agreement. They were not worth much anyway.
Fang Bai personally picked out the newest set of drill bits and tools and tossed them onto the forklift before letting the forklift driver set off. He rode ahead on his bicycle to lead the way.
After leaving the factory gates, Fang Bai handed the forklift driver a pack of Qingliangtai cigarettes and told him to take it slow, since some of the roads were difficult to travel.
Fang Bai had told Wang Hengli that the distance was not far, but it was actually two or three kilometers. For a forklift that could not travel very fast and was carrying equipment, that was still quite a distance. If Wang Hengli found out, he would probably complain.
The forklift driver happily drove on after receiving the cigarettes. He heard that the destination was a little far, but he did not mind for the sake of the cigarettes. Besides, this had been ordered by the boss, and it was not his fuel being burned.
Besides, it was Sunday. The morning was relatively quiet, and he would be off in the afternoon.
About ten minutes later, the forklift finally arrived at Fang Bai's rented house.
Fang Bai opened the door and had the driver place the equipment in the designated spot, where it would be convenient to connect the power and repair it.
"Boss Fang, if there's nothing else, I'll be going."
"Yeah, there's nothing else."
"Alright, goodbye."
"Yeah, we might see each other again soon, haha."
The forklift driver did not understand what Fang Bai meant. He waved at him, started the forklift, and drove back to the company with a cigarette in one hand and the steering wheel in the other.
Next, Fang Bai connected the wiring and turned on the power. Only after confirming that the equipment was working properly did he shut it off.
By the time he finished dealing with all that, the entire morning had passed.
After lunch and a short rest, he went out to buy the parts and tools needed for maintenance.
In Wen City, he could still find equipment parts.
If this had been a city in central or western China, finding suitable bearings in this era would have been difficult.
Mechanical manufacturing technology was relatively underdeveloped in this era, so even standard bearings were not cheap.
Fang Bai was not afraid of high prices. What he feared most was being unable to find what he needed.
In the end, he found suitable 6008 Deep Groove Ball Bearings at a shop called Duoduo Hardware Store. After haggling with the owner, he spent forty-five yuan on a set.
At another store, he bought a five-liter bucket of No. 46 anti-wear hydraulic oil for 14.5 yuan.
After riding back to the rented house, he changed clothes, put on rubber gloves, and replaced the hydraulic oil first.
More than ten minutes later, the hydraulic oil had been changed, and he began disassembling the faulty components.
His right hand was somewhat weak. Before he had even finished taking it apart, he was drenched in sweat, with grease staining both his hands and clothes.
It was not until four in the afternoon that he finally removed the bearing and shaft from the equipment.
"Damn it, this money really isn't easy to earn. I'm exhausted!"
Fang Bai looked at his hands, which were covered in black grease, especially in the crevices of his fingernails where it was hard to wash off. He let out a sigh.
He sat on the concrete floor with his knees bent, resting as he stared at the results on the ground.
The bearing and shaft had an interference fit, with no clearance at all. Removing the bearing from the shaft was troublesome. Fang Bai had no bearing puller, and the only useful tools he had were wrenches and a hammer. If someone unfamiliar with machinery simply smashed at it, they would scratch the spindle surface, ruining the shaft completely.
After resting for a while, Fang Bai stood the shaft upright on a wooden box, wedged an iron block against the bearing's inner ring, applied oil to the shaft, and gave it two tentative strikes. The bearing did not loosen.
This time, he did not dare hit it again.
"Looks like I can't handle this without specialized tools. I'll spend money tomorrow to find a professional to disassemble and install it." Fang Bai had only watched others do it before and had never actually done it himself. He had not expected the real operation to be harder than he imagined.
His brain knew how, but his hands did not. How awkward.
He would not be able to finish today, so he could only wash the grease off his hands, then buy some daily necessities, pots, pans, and dishes at a nearby general store.
There was no water heater in the rented house, not even a gas stove. If he wanted hot water, he would have to burn firewood to heat it. There was definitely no way to have hot water tonight, so he could only take a cold shower. Fortunately, the weather was only slightly chilly.
After eating dinner outside, he returned and took a cold shower while there was still some warmth in his body.
After showering, he began writing a study plan under the lamp, then entered study mode.
School had already been in session for a month, meaning Fang Bai had attended one month less class than those Repeating students. He also had to spend his days trying to make money. If he did not make good use of his nights, then even with a Golden Finger, getting into a good university next year would be far too difficult. His grades were still more than a hundred points behind those needed for even a bottom-tier Project 985 University in his previous life.
At his score range, improving by more than a hundred points in one repeat year would be extremely difficult. An improvement of forty to eighty points was normal.
Without a Golden Finger, improving by more than a hundred points? Keep dreaming.
He studied until nearly midnight, only going to sleep once he began to feel drowsy.
Before sleeping, he reviewed the knowledge points he had memorized that day and found that he could still remember them. Fang Bai felt even more confident about the college entrance exam.
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